CYCLING ON TV IN 2008: HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE WATCHING?

British fans had access to more cycling coverage on television this year than ever before.

As well as Eurosport?s coverage of the major tours and Classics, the BBC showed the World Championships on the track and road, the Olympic Games and the World Cup at the weekend.

ITV4?s coverage of the Tour de France was complemented by highlights of the Tour of Ireland and Tour of Britain too.

Sky?s sponsorship of British Cycling offers many possibilities for the future too. A major player in sports broadcaster, Sky wants in on the Olympic Games action in time for 2012 and signing up with Britain?s most successful sport was one obvious way to do that.

Only time will tell whether Sky also bids for the rights to show major events, although cycling?s fans and administrators alike should exercise caution in this respect. Although Sky is a major brand, both powerful and prestigious, it does not guarantee viewers.

Premier League football, the sport which towers above all others in terms of media coverage in this country, is at the heart of Sky Sports? portfolio. However, the biggest audience for a live game this season is the 1.6 million who watched arguably the most attractive fixture ? Manchester United versus Chelsea. More than double that tuned into BBC2?s highlights show Match of the Day later that evening (September 26).

The BBC has delivered big audiences for cycling this season, according to figures obtained from BARB, the Broadcasters? Audience Research Board.

Viewing figures for cycling events at the Olympic Games were routinely above two million, with a peak of 4.45m for coverage on Saturday, August 16, the day Chris Hoy won the Keirin and Bradley Wiggins the individual pursuit.

Audiences for the World Championship track meeting in Manchester (March 26-30) were extremely healthy too, with 1.1m watching Sunday afternoon?s live coverage on BBC2 and 1.7m tuning in to BBC1 on Saturday afternoon to see, among other things, Wiggins and Mark Cavendish win the Madison.

That?s proof that more people can watch cycling on terrestrial television than the biggest football fixture in England on a pay-per-view satellite and cable station.

Figures for the recent World Cup track meeting are not yet available, but the BBC was hoping to capitalise on the post-Beijing feel-good factor surrounding cycling.

ITV4 currently holds the rights to the Tour de France and its mix of live weekend broadcasts and weekday highlights show in an early evening slot brought in between 250,000 and 500,000 viewers. Good audiences, but still some way short of the million Channel 4?s coverage, which ended in 1999, used to deliver. The Tour of Britain also enjoyed healthy figures, peaking at 250,000, but still some way short of the Tour de France figures.

Although ITV4 is a free to air channel, viewers do need to have a Freeview box or similar system to receive it.

British Eurosport is included in some, but not all, cable and satellite packages and it shows more cycling than any other broadcaster.

It is perhaps surprising that the Giro d?Italia delivered the company?s best results ? until you consider that many potential viewers are perhaps lured away by ITV4.

The biggest audience for a cycle race on British Eurosport in 2008 was a mountain stage of the Giro d?Italia ? the one where Russia?s Vasili Kiriyenka won and Britain?s Steve Cummings was fourth. This was a stage held on a Friday, bucking the trend of weekend audiences being considerably bigger.

That Giro stage was the only cycling broadcast among the top 20 most-watched events on Eurosport. A look at that particular table shows why motor cycling so often takes preference over cycling. Motorcycling in one form or other brought 14 of Eurosport?s top 20 audience figures in Britain.

Some of the coverage of the Classics brings very small audiences ? just 40,000 for Liège-Bastogne-Liège, for example. However, British Eurosport?s spring schedule is usually a mess. It?s almost impossible to guarantee the Classics will be on when the schedule says they will be.

It may seem obvious, but the lesson for cycling is that the biggest audiences are delivered by the broadcasters with the most reach. And that means terrestrial or widely-available free-to-air stations.

The advent of interactive technology means that at the touch of the red button a wide array of options can be presented to the viewer ? as the BBC proved with its complete live coverage of the men?s and women?s road races at the World Championships in Varese in September.

Viewing figures for these events are not available but the fact remains, as the country switches over to digital television the red button option becomes available to more and more households, whereas pay-per-view channels and those that are technically free but are only included in the more expensive packages can only deliver small audiences.

Below are the audiences for cycling programmes on British television in 2008, according to BARB and the BBC.

Viewers

Event

Date

4.45m

Olympic Games track cycling (Hoy wins Keirin, Wiggins wins pursuit)

Sat, Aug 16

1.7m

World Track Championships on BBC1

Sat, Mar 29

1.18m

World Track Championships on BBC2

Sun, Mar 30

Viewers

Event

Date

198,000

Kiriyenka wins Giro d?Italia stage 19

Fri, May 30

143,000

Griepel and Cavendish one-two Giro stage 17

Wed, May 28

140,000

Moncoutie wins at Pla de Beret Vuelta a Espana

Sun, Sept 7

133,000

Cavendish wins in Toulouse Tour de France stage 8

Sat, Jul 12

130,000

Ricco wins at Bagneres, Tour de France stage 9

Sun, Jul 13

123,000

Devolder wins Tour of Flanders

Sun, Apr 6

114,000

Sella wins at Marmolada, Giro stage 15

Sun, May 25

105,000

Steegmans wins final stage, Tour de France

Sun, Jul 27

97,000

Contador wins Vuelta a Espana stage 14

Sun, Sept 14

94,000

Sastre wins at Alpe d?Huez, Tour stage 17

Wed, Jul 23

91,000

Burghardt wins Tour de France stage 18

Thu, Jul 24

82,000

Dessel wins at Jausiers, Tour stage 16

Tue, Jul 22

78,000

Boonen wins Paris-Roubaix

Sun, Apr 13

78,000

Luis Leon Sanchez wins Tour stage 7 at Aurillac

Fri, Jul 11

76,000

Valverde wins Tour de France stage 1

Sat, Jul 5

73,000

Bennati wins Giro d?Italia stage 9

Sun, May 18

72,000

Ricco wins at Super Besse, Tour de France

Thu, Jul 10

72,000

Final Tour de France time trial

Sat, Jul 27

72,000

Men?s Olympic Games road race

Sat, Aug 9

70,000

Cunego wins Amstel Gold Race

Sun, Apr 20

69,000

Cancellara wins Milan-San Remo

Sat, Mar 22

67,000

Chavanel wins Tour de France stage 19

Fri, Jul 25

65,000

Women?s Olympic Games road race

Sun, Aug 10

62,000

Ricco wins Giro d?Italia stage 8

Sat, May 17

61,000

Sella wins at Pampeago, Giro stage 16

Sat, May 24

58,000

Slipstream win Giro d?Italia stage 1

Sat, May 10

58,000

Ricco wins Giro d?Italia stage 2

Sun, May 11

55,000

Hushovd wins Tour de France stage 2

Sun, Jul 6

41,000

Boonen wins Vuelta a Espana stage 16

Tue, Sept 16

40,000

Valverde wins Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Sun, Apr 27

EUROSPORT?S TOP 20
The top 20 most-watched sports broadcasts on British Eurosport this year, up to the end of October.

Viewers

Event

Date

269,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

June

229,000

Volleyball, Olympic qualifier

January

229,000

Tennis, French Open

May

220,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

March

220,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

September

218,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

June

214,000

Football, African Nations Cup

February

208,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

March

204,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

September

203,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

April

202,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

August

200,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

May

198,000

Cycling, Giro d?Italia stage 19

June

196,000

Motor cycling, Superbike World Champs

August

194,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

March

192,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

April

191,000

Snooker, UK Masters

January

188,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

June

186,000

Motor cycling, Moto GP

August

184,000

Tennis, ATP Tour

January

Notes
All figures courtesy of BARB (Broadcasters? Audience Research Board). Only programmes ranked in the week?s top ten for each channel are included. There is no data available for the week ending July 20, the middle week of the Tour de France.

All Tour de France, unless stated. Live and highlights programmes included. ITV 4 showed a nightly highlights programme for the Tour de France, Tour of Britain and Tour of Ireland, plus selected weekend Tour de France stages live.

Viewers

Event

Date

502,000

Burghardt wins at Saint-Etienne

Thu, Jul 24

496,000

Dessel wins at Jausiers

Tue, Jul 22

487,000

Luis Sanchez wins at Aurillac

Fri, Jul 11

467,000

Piepoli wins Hautacam stage

Mon, Jul 14

459,000

Ricco wins at Super Besse

Thu, Jul 10

448,000

No. 4 for Cavendish at Nimes

Fri, Jul 18

438,000

Cavendish wins his third stage in Narbonne

Thu, Jul 17

411,000

Sastre wins at Alpe d?Huez

Wed, July 23

393,000

Arvesen wins at Foix

Wed, Jul 16

380,000

Chavanel wins at Montlucon

Fri, Jul 25

362,000

Dumoulin wins stage 3

Mon, Jul 7

358,000

Cavendish?s first win, at Chateauroux

Wed, Jul 9

348,000

Freire wins at Digne

Sat, Jul 19

307,000

Schumacher wins Cholet TT

Tue, Jul 8

290,000

Gerrans wins at Prato Nevoso

Sun, Jul 20

285,000

First rest day wrap-up show

Tue, Jul 15

273,000

Ricco wins at Bagnères-de-Bigorre

Sun, Jul 13

266,000

Second rest day wrap-up show

Mon, Jul 21

250,000

Petacchi wins Tour of Britain stage 6

Fri, Sept 12

248,000

Berges wins Tour of Britain stage at Burnham

Tue, Sept 9

234,000

Boasson Hagen wins Tour of Britain stage 5

Thur, Sept 11

231,000

Valverde wins stage 1

Sat, Jul 5

198,000

Tour of Ireland, final stage and wrap-up show

Sun, Aug 31

Notes
The Tour de France was the most-watched ITV4 programme during all three full weeks of the race. In week?s two and three, the Tour accounted for seven of the top 10 most-watched programmes on the channel.

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